Light Week, 48 Hours Away, Week 29!

Last week was one of our scheduled "light weeks" which coordinated perfectly with my trip away for two days to the biennial Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing, a conference I've wanted to attend for YEARS. My gracious hubby took a day off work and took care of the boys while I scurried away to Grand Rapids, MI for my getaway, and it was a fabulous time. I didn't think about homeschooling once while I was away! And I think that was actually a good thing. We all need breaks once in a while!

But this week, it was back to the normal swing of things, even though I do have to admit it was like pulling teeth to get our plans together. I was so tired by Sunday evening that I was falling asleep just trying to do lesson plans! But, somehow, by the grace of God no doubt, we made it through the week. Highlights include...

• Ron (DS, 5) continues to truck through Singapore Earlybird Math A. Sometimes the lessons are geared more for a full class, so it takes some adapting, but Sean still managed to have great fun with the section on capacity. Anytime "free play with water" can count as a school activity, kids are bound to have fun!

• Harry started using My First Magnet Kit as suggested by our My Father's World curriculum as an optional science activity, and I'm glad we've done it. He's really enjoying the short little activities to show magnets in action. Ron joins in when he can, and both particularly loved seeing the two magnets of the same pole repelling one another. "Oh, magic!" they said. "No, magnets!" I would have to correct. That didn't stop them from pulling out their makeshift wands and pretending to be the cause of the top magnet floating seemingly in thin air.

(making a homemade compass, above)

• This week our Bible theme was "Jesus the Good Shepherd", and we're reading Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates, which is a lovely story of a shepherding family and just another example of the ways in which MFW ties together various aspects of the curriculum to reinforce each other. I wouldn't say this has been our kids' favorite read-aloud this year--they prefer something a little more action-packed, such as Stone Fox which we read together for fun recently--but I think it's great for them to hear a mix of different writers' voices and styles. Hopefully one day, 20 years down the road or so, they'll agree! =)

• We continued through our tour of the U.S. by covering Nevada, Kansas, West Virginia and Nebraska. As we discovered that the first Pizza Hut location was opened in Wichita, Kansas back in 1958, it only seemed fitting that we should order pizza that night to commemorate it--and so we did!

• Harry is choosing to write more and more of his assignments in cursive, without my even asking, so that's a good sign that he is becoming more comfortable with it. No arguments here!

• We were blessed with yet another beautiful spring week so we had to enjoy it! We ate lunch outside on Wednesday, then the younger brothers had fun playing while Harry was doing an online class on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I always listen in on the class and am so happy that Harry gets a chance in this virtual way to participate in a class discussion. He never hesitates to raise his hand and even though he is the youngest in the class, he makes good contributions to the discussion. How could we homeschool without the Internet???

We are really coming down to the home stretch here for our school year, which seems just insane--the year has gone by so fast! We have five more weeks left in our MFW/Adventures curriculum, with a week break for a trip to California to visit my folks, which means we'll officially be done the first week of June. Just in time for the annual Illinois Christian Home Educators' conference which takes place ten minutes away. Another blessing! Thanks for visiting. =)

Ron's birthday, Easter, and oh yes, Week 28!

The weeks are flying by here, and I can't believe we are heading into the final stretch with our first year of homeschooling. I was tempted to take it easy on Monday, as we had had a very full weekend between Easter and Ron's 5th birthday, but I pushed forward and we did manage to get a good week of school in, despite my feeling utterly exhausted on Monday morning!

Speaking of the weekend, although it doesn't really have anything to do with school, I thought I should include some photos. We had to be at church early on Sunday and as a result, we just didn't have time to take any photos of our dapper boys! (Well, dapper for about ten minutes until they began to run around and be boys!) One of our church friends caught them enjoying the Easter Egg Hunt after church, and these are the only photos that show any evidence that we did try to dress up for Easter!

And here's birthday boy Ron, enjoying his moment of being the center of attention:

As for school, we were scheduled for week 28 in our My Father's World curriculum. In honesty, I feel like the curriculum has slowed down somewhat; the creative activities that were present in the first half are not as prevalent now, so I don't feel like I have as many picture-worthy opportunities. I also wonder if I need to be taking more initiative to come up with creative ways to reinforce what we're learning, but I don't know that I have the energy or time to do so. The challenge with homeschooling is that there is no end to the research and preparation you can do, and I do feel at this point in the year that I'm basically just doing what needs to be done to get by on a daily basis. Are the kids still learning? They are, but I do feel like I could do more to help those lessons sink in a little more. (I have to say on a side note how much I love the Ordinary Parents' Guide to Reading. I wasn't sure how it was going to work at first--it looked so boring and scripted--but this program has done wonders for Ron and has truly opened the door for him to read. Short lessons, a straightforward phonetic approach--I've learned as much as he has this year!)

The other challenge for us is time. Despite the fact that I don't feel like we have as many activities to do as before, at the same time it feels like we are so crunched for time now to get everything done! (Now I'm wondering if this was the great wisdom of the Hazells, the creators of the My Father's World curriculum, to start slowing things down by this point in the year because everyone is feeling crunched for time as the year goes by?) Our schedule now looks something like this every day:

8:00-8:30 a.m. Breakfast
8:30-9:30 a.m. Piano time for Harry, violin time for Ron (then somewhere in here Harry usually takes......ahem.....a bathroom break that seems to last forever!)
10-11:15 a.m. Harry's independent work (changes every day, but includes some combination of spelling, handwriting, math, history or science reading, and either Latin or Chinese; I help Ron with his math, reading, and writing during this time)
11:15-11:45 a.m. Bible and other activities (i.e., science or history) with Ron
11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Break/Lunch then naptime for Dobby and sometimes Ron
1 p.m.-1:45 p.m. Quiet reading time
1:45-2:15 p.m. Math
2:15 p.m-3 p.m. Finish anything that has to be done

I always like for us to be done by 3 p.m. at the latest, because it just feels like to go any longer would be too long for everyone. We could probably start earlier in the morning, except for the fact that I am not a morning person by any means; we could also probably tighten up our lunch break, but it just always seems to take that long! I wonder what our school days will be like as the boys get older??? (Assuming we manage to last that long!) And how will it become more complicated when Dobby starts getting involved? I cannot even imagine yet! But we'll just meet that challenge when it comes!

Otherwise, we did a fun activity with gravity yesterday, in which I really tried to hammer home the idea that objects fall at the same speed regardless of their weight. We took two empty bottles and filled one with plastic counters, weighing them to prove that the one with counters was definitely heavier. Then we held both bottles at the same height, let go at the same time, and watched the result. The boys got a kick out of dropping the bottles, so much so I'm not sure they even cared so much about how they landed!


Last week, one of our friends from church gave us a very unique ant farm, filled with a special gel that has all the nutrients and water that ants need. Over time you are able to see the tunnels they create through this gel, which should be fascinating! This week the big harvester ants to use with the farm arrived. We set it up and have been taking photos of the ants' progress every day. Here are some photos; the first one of the ant farm is how it looked on Day 1, and the second photo of the farm is how it looked 24 hours later. The ants have been busy!


And in other animal-related news, this week we were able to capture on film the blue jay who's been visiting our feeder with whole peanuts! This took numerous attempts and conquering the challenge of being at the window at just the right moment. Here he is!


To end our week we took advantage of IHOP's "kids eat free" April promotion, and while we waited for the food we talked more about gravity and as we took turns dropping Mighty Bites on the table. Homeschooling doesn't just happen at home! =)

Week 27: Spring is here!

This was one of those weeks in which the weather was truly the star. Spring does not always last long here in Chicagoland, or it can be suddenly replaced by unexpected winter weather (as happened last Saturday--snow appeared after several days in the 60s!) so we tried to take advantage of it when we could! We spent tons of time outdoors, even eating meals outdoors, and just soaked in so much sunlight. I have read that due to parents' worries about exposure to UV light, kids are actually becoming deficient in Vitamin D and developing rickets in some cases. Well, at least for this week, we didn't have that problem!

Schoolwise, some of our highlights were...

• Harry participated in an online class about Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Homeschoolers from all over the country sign on and participate in a group discussion, facilitated by a teacher, and this was Harry's second time doing so. He is the youngest in the group but hasn't hesitated to "raise his hand" and make comments, which is great to see. I was always the kid in class who never wanted to raise my hand, and so I have tried to encourage our kids never to be afraid to participate. The result has been almost the opposite problem, that my kids will be the ones to raise their hands even if they don't know the answer! So we're still working on learning when to raise hands...but at least they're not afraid to speak up!

• In science, we focused on solids, liquids and gases, and did a little experiment to determine what happens to substances when they are put in the freezer. Both boys were surprised to see how little oil changed after a few hours in the freezer and how milk and juice became something entirely different!

• In the hopes that we find our digital camera soon, I won't go into great detail about this here, but we found out that whole peanuts are the way to lure blue jays into our backyard and we saw more of them this week than we had all year. The boys were thrilled by this large, colorful, and noisy bird, even if our smaller feathered friends flee at the first (loud!) sound of the blue jay. Hope to be able to capture them in a photo soon!

• Speaking of birds, we are still enjoying watching the live feed of Molly the Barn Owl. It's been amazing to watch her transform from nesting owl to mother owl, with now four out of her five owlets out of the shells. The boys have been amazed at how carnivorous owls are and how they swallow their prey, fur, bones and all! I think the educational value has been unbelievable. You'd never get to see this in a zoo, the kind of live biology lesson we've been experiencing over the past couple of weeks. The owlets will be in the nest for a couple more weeks yet before Molly teaches her owlets to hunt and they leave the nest to make their own way into the world. Here is a photo with at least a couple of her owlets visible:

• This Sunday, in addition to celebrating Easter, we will also celebrate Ron's 5th birthday! He is adamant that he wants to do school at home instead of going to kindergarten in the local school. So, this coming fall should be interesting, if I continue to use My Father's World's Exploring Countries and Cultures and also a separate kindergarten curriculum. It's already feels tough to fit everything in as is, so looking ahead, the coming fall will be quite the challenge! I marvel at veteran homeschoolers who manage way more kids than I do in their homeschool. Right now, I mostly hope that I'm not completely messing up my children's educational future. Thankfully, I know God is bigger than any of my mistakes. =)

Thanks for visiting, and have a happy Easter!

Week 26...and our 100th Day of School!

Well, I couldn't keep my own secret. I let the boys know on Monday that we'd celebrate our 100th day of homeschooling on Thursday, and needless to say, they were thrilled. I can't even remember what else we did this week...all the usual subjects...but this report will be all about our day of celebration! (Sadly, we have somehow lost our digital camera so I had to take these with a cell phone...apologies for the quality!)

I had star-shaped Post-Its leftover from another event, so late Wednesday night, I spread those all over the walls of our first floor and labeled them from 1-100 in random order. The boys' first task on Thursday morning, which they began while I was making breakfast, was to work together as a team, find all 100 stars, and place them in the correct order. They had a blast! And although perhaps they didn't figure out the most efficient way to go about the task, they did split up the work and demonstrated teamwork, which I was happy to see.


And of course, we had to eat something related to the number 100:


We read Psalm 100 during breakfast, a suggestion from another homeschooling mom whose blog had so many great ideas for celebrating the day. After breakfast, the boys finished the finding the 100 Stars, then we started working on our "100th Day of School" book, an idea I also borrowed from aforementioned blog! (Thank goodness for the Internet!) Aidan also got into the action by wanting to work with the older boys at the kitchen table:


Then it was our 100 P.E. Activities--the boys did the following to make 100 total:

• 10 jumping jacks
• 10 laps around the first floor
• 10 stairs
• 10 push ups
• 10 baskets in the basketball hoop
• 10 putts

• 10 hopping on one foot
  
• 10 air punches
• 10 touching toes
• 10 jump ropes
  

Then it was snack time! Of course, we had to have 100 snacks...10 each of the following healthy and nutritious goodies (hahaha....)

• 10 honey-roasted peanuts
• 10 Jelly Bellies
• 10 Goldfish crackers
• 10 pieces of ginger cookies (broken up because they were big)
• 10 Pringles
• 10 raisins
• 10 Nerds
• 10 organic chocolate bunny graham crackers
• 10 mini-marshmallows
• 10 Fruity Cheerios

After which, we attempted to do a craft with 100 craft sticks. This turned out to be an abysmal failure, which is probably a reflection on my total ineptitude with crafty activities! I wanted to give them the chance to use their imagination and make something together out of the craft sticks and glue--I even brought out a glue gun for the occasion!--but not having enough direction stymied the boys so I just scrapped that idea!

I had all these crazy idea for incorporating the number 100 into lunch, but I ran out of time so that will have to wait for next year. We kept to our normal Quiet Reading Time after lunch, during which I asked the boys if they thought they could read 100 pages total, which they each did, then in the afternoon, the boys had the 100 Blocks and 100 Cars project, which was to count out a total of 100 of each and then build something together. At first they were each taking their own set of blocks and doing something individually, but I intervened to encourage them to build something together. And here is what they came up with:

Harry had the clever idea to use the blocks to make the number "100":


And while they were working on this project, I threw some cupcakes into the oven and our last activity was to decorate 10 cupcakes, each with 10 sprinkles, to celebrate the end of our 100th day! The boys enjoyed this project the best, I think. =)

It's amazing to think that we have actually made it through 100 Days of Homeschooling; I never would have imagined doing so even a year ago! We've had our challenges and our struggles, as I imagine all homeschooling families do, but God has been faithful and an ever-present help. Hopefully by his grace we will make it to another 100 Day Celebration next year!

Spring Break! And, Week 25!

Last week was our Spring Break, which actually coincided with my husband's Spring Break for the first time since having school-aged children. This meant that he had the chance to spend LOTS of time with the boys! =) I used the time to work on my book about motherhood and found my new home-away-from-home, the McDonald's closest to our house. I know, it doesn't sound that appealing, but with free Wi-Fi and a lovely, quiet atmosphere between 9 a.m.-12 p.m., it was the perfect place to spend time thinking, reading and writing! (I even managed to avoid the temptation of buying anything unhealthy to eat there...no small feat once they started making french fries and the odor filled the place!)

Due to my writing obligations, we didn't go anywhere for the break, but DH did take the boys to a fun mini-golf outing...

...then later in the week, we visited a local farm to see maple sugaring in action as has been described in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books we've been reading this year. Sadly, the temperature was not cold enough to get the sap to run, but the boys had fun pretending to tap trees nonetheless!

The visitor's center also had a life-size model of a cow, complete with a rubber udder filled with water for kids to try their hand at milking (sorry for the poor picture quality below!):

The boys had a blast visiting all the animals at the farm, including some newly-born baby lambs...

One of my sons took the photo below. We all found it pretty hilarious. Guess these sheep were not in the mood to socialize with us!

We also saw horses, a chicken coop, and a number of cows. This one shocked Harry with the size of its tongue!

The farm also maintains an 1890s-era farmhouse, so we enjoyed the tour; we were only allowed to take a photo of the kitchen, with its stove and the bathtub hung on the wall. It was a great day at the farm!

As for school this past week....I think our highlight was doing our science activity of making water molecules. First we made some out of grapes:

(Dobby prefers to just eat the materials!)

Then we made a whole glassful out of marshmallows and the boys gave their dad the "water" when he came home:

As for other aspects of school, I've continued my more relaxed attitude this week, not worrying if we haven't completed everything as I have before. So we have fallen a little behind in our Classical Writing Primer, for example. I've decided that there is no reason we can't continue into the summer anything we didn't finish in the school year. But I also feel like we've made up for it by emphasizing math more of late; Harry started Singapore 2A but we've also continued working on word problems from 1B to give him more practice in that area. In the end, it doesn't really matter that he can add and subtract if he doesn't know when to use which operation! The word problems really help with understanding how to apply the operations so we keep working through those.

I've also learned that I know very little about phonics. I have no idea how I learned how to read; I was an early reader and probably learned mostly by sight, which is how Harry learned to read, largely on his own before kindergarten. (I'm a little concerned that this will all catch up to him with his spelling and that we'll soon have to do some remedial phonics work with him, too!) I've been more deliberate with Ron, using Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and as a result I've discovered all kinds of phonetic rules I never knew before. We're a little more than halfway through and things are getting confusing even for me--i.e, sometimes -ow sounds like "ow!" and sometimes it sounds like "oh!" Sometimes I wonder if Ron is able to keep all this straight as I barely can myself! I think we'll be starting to build in more review of the different possible sounds soon. This makes me wonder, how exactly do they teach reaching in the public schools?

Lastly, one of the states we covered this week was Iowa, Harry's birthstate nearly 8 years ago! Here we are just before our move away from Iowa, in front of the hospital where he was born. And the next shot is basically what we saw all around us for miles on end. One day we'll have to take him back there to see it all in person for himself. The town he was born was so small that they announced every baby birth over the radio, and as we were one of the very few Asians there, random strangers would easily spot us and know exactly who Harry was. Life in a small town!

Next week...we celebrate our 100th day of school! I need to start gathering ideas to make it fun. Technically, we've done more than 100 days including co-op days, but to keep it simple I've just counted M-Th days so we've reached this point later in the school year than others. I haven't told the boys yet so shhhhhh.....let's keep it a secret from them! =)

(P.S. I forgot to mention that we've been enjoying this live online feed of a nesting barn owl named Molly...she has been incubating 5 eggs this past months and one hatched today! Fun to check out to see all kinds of animal behavior, including the amazing way owls consume rodents and their unique mating calls and rituals!)